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Narrative Powers in True20 – the Idea.

Another moment over another massive cup of coffee. While the Princess is busy downing strawberries, I’m going to try to get this idea down and out there.

I was thinking about the next campaign I intend to run once I get the band back together (if you are in Ottawa, we could still use another player). It’s going to be a “supers” campaign but in the setting of Mundus Novit. I’m leaving it up to the players as to what level of supers they want to play, but I’m kind of leaning toward something like the Authority or Planetary. Yes, Warren Ellis still owes me money from all those Nextwave: Agents of Hate plugs on the podcast, but I continue to pimp his stuff.

Any-hoo.

I’m leaning toward Savage Worlds for Planetary and Mutants & Masterminds for the Authority. I got some good suggestions from the Twitosphere (thanks@JamesDillane and @thornlord) but unfortunately, the excellent suggestions are impractical—though  if anyone can suggest a way to get print copies of Truth and Justice and/or Prime Time Adventures without doubling the cost in postage, let me know.

I had an idea for powers that would let me use True20. Why bother with learning a whole new system when I can tweak the one I love?

Narrative powers.

Just a basic idea right now, and here’s how it would work. Instead of having a specific power effect—like energy blast or sleep—the character has a power concept. For example, Mr. Snow would have “cold.” As long as the player can explain how this power applies to what the character is trying to do, the character makes a power check, just like now. All powers are fatiguing.

The powers would get 10 points to put into combat or utility. So, Mr. Snow might drop 8 points into combat and 2 into utility. That means for combat purposes, the power is +8. If the player tries to use the power outside of combat, the power is considered +2. If Mr. Snow tries to freeze Mr. Leather’s brain, that’s combat. If Mr. Snow tries to short circuit the security network by dropping its temperature into the negative hundreds, that’s utility.

Strawberry break is ending. More later if I get the chance.

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Mundus Novit Design – Setting the System

The manuscript for Mundus Novit is all written. There’s not much to develop. Well, that is if SEP intends to publish it only for the d-Modern version of the world’s most popular RPG. SEP certainly will release a Modern version. But now I’m thinking there are other avenues as well.

When I originally developed Mundus Novit . . . wow, that was a long time ago . . . anyway, when I first developed it, I was only playing D&D and its variants, including its Modern variant. Things have changed. Right now, my system of choice is still a D&D derivative, True20. I’m comfortable enough with True20, and the licensing deal for using True20 is sweet enough, so I figure we need to do a True20 version.

Thing is, I like to tinker with systems. I’m not a game designer, I would never call myself that. I’m not knowledgeable enough to design a system. I like to tinker with them, but I could never build a system from the ground up with any sense of assurance. True20 is a pretty heavy tinker, but it’s a riff off D&D, rather than a system built from the ground up. It changes some of the assumptions, cleans up some things, and injects some stuff totally new, but it is still built on the D&D foundation.

So right now, along with doing a Modern and a True20 version, I’m thinking of developing a variant based on the Open Game Licence specifically for Mundus Novit.

I’m not considering doing Savage Worlds right now because I don’t know the system well enough. I’m not thinking Mutants & Masterminds because I don’t know the system at all. That’s not to say I won’t consider these, but the plan is to get this out relatively quickly, so trying to do too much would kind of be shooting myself in the foot.

But how to package it? I’ve got two options I’m considering: multiple full setting + system books; one systemless setting book, followed by various system primers; or one setting book with a full game system (Mundus 20?) and then various system primers separately. The only reason to do a full game system + setting book is because otherwise, I don’t think anyone would buy a Mundus 20 (MN20?) system. Download for free? Sure, but people will download anything if its free. It doesn’t mean they’ll do more than give it a cursory glance.

These decisions aren’t final. There’s still administrative and financial stuff to consider before I make final plans. I’m excited to see the trade dress, as Rob Wakefield is working on that, and Rob’s work as always been exemplary. I’m very excited to see what he comes up with.

Another good thing is that I’ve secured the services of three great writers to critique and edit the Mundus Novit fiction that you can expect to appear beginning May 28. That’s going to put my game up a notch . . . or they’ll all tell me to burn everything and never write again.

Like I haven’t heard that before!

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Campaign Journal: Viking True20 Actual Play

If you’ve been reading my campaign journal, you know a little something about the Viking campaign I’m running for my RPG group in Ottawa. I decided I wanted to do an actual play, and the first steps have been completed. The first episode, a “story so far” episode, is now available.

You can find information at the new blog dedicated to the Adventures of the Ottawa Warband. I apologize for the name. Not as cool as Accidental Survivors. We were on the spot with this one. The blog is at herlid.blogspot.com, herlid being Old Norse for warband, and warband being a group of vikings joined together under a leader or captain.

I will continue the campaign journal here, as well as cross-posting everything over to the blog. The actual play podcast will only be available at the blog. If you are interested, you can subscribe to the feed to get the podcasts as they come out.

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Campaign Journal: Conclusions from Session One

The first session didn’t totally sell me on True20. I realized this was partly my problem. I was still stuck in a d20 mindset. I missed the Minons rule, which would have made the combat with Hygelac’s warband fit to my preconception. Also, while the iconic weapon concept I mentioned in my last post dealt with the combat competency gap, this could also have been dealt with–mostly–with the rules as written.

Here’s the thing: I started the characters at 3rd level to give them some experience. I chose 3rd level based on my d20 experience–the character is more capable, but is not yet nigh-invulnerable due to high hit points. Without hit points, I could have started the characters at 10th level.

Because the Toughness save doesn’t have level dependent bonuses, a 10th level character is as vulnerable as a 3rd level character, unless the 10th level character has burned feats on increasing his Toughness. I should have started the characters at 6th or even 8th level. That would have made them as competent as I had hoped, but would not make them tanks–the outcome of starting at such as level in d20.

A couple of problems remained, based on the conflict of my conception and the True20 rules.

Players would still choose weapons based on the mechanical benefits, or if they chose based on style, would face mechanical penalties. Giving iconic weapons a +4 damage allowed players to choose style over mechanics without penalty.

While a wounded character did have a penalty to most actions, it was not progressive. It was only applied once, no matter how many times the character was wounded. I changed that to a – 1 penalty per wound. It creates the kind of deteriorating condition for which I usually look.

Having addressed those problems with house rules, True20 is now chugging along very well. Truth be told, though, I have never met a system I haven’t house-ruled, so only applying two house-rules (so far) is impressive in itself.

One thing I couldn’t figure out and I need to research is the use of ranged weapons in melee. I know how d20 deals with it, but I couldn’t find anything in True20. Given that I totally missed the Minions rules, this may simply be my oversight. I’ll check back in later if I learn something more. As it was, the ranged weapon in question was an iconic weapon, so no worry.

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Campaign Journal – the First Session

The Campaign Journal has kind of stagnated, hasn’t it? Let’s get this puppy back on the rails.

So, the first session.

I had forced the players to provide character concepts without the mechanics. This was kind of a history meets character niche posting. This was what we used to build the characters in True20.  It worked surprisingly well–at least for me. The biggest problem during character creation was that I only had one book and there were five players. I really liked building from concept to mechanics, and the structure of True20 allowed for a pretty open process. With only three classes and builds based on feats and powers, the class decision was pretty much made for us.

I also devised some character backgrounds and updated others to match the historical setting. That was fun.

My only issue with True20 was how it approached multi-classing. Maybe it’s the d20 Modern guy in me, but I like multi-classing as a means to create unique characters and complete character concepts. The only real penalty in True20 to multi-classing was to saving throws. While the impact is minimal, especially at higher levels, as I was hoping to create real heroes, I waived that penalty, and allowed character to multi-class freely–however, the character only had one core ability, based on the character’s first class.

The character creation actually took a bit of time because we only had one document. One of the players already had True20, but we were using the revised version, which had a few minor changes. Another player had the quick-play rules, which are apparently significantly different. Given that, the Revised True20 book was in great demand.

The characters were:
Holm: an older Viking who lost a hand to access the Odinpower, much as Odin lost his eye
Audun: an Orkneyman who is part Celt and has access to that culture’s magic through his mother’s blood
Blatik: a Frank who was fated to kill a god or forever suffer servitude
Theodore: a Byzantine scholar, out to learn about the world
Nemit: a Magyar wanderer

Finally, characters all ready, we embarked on the adventure. The players had been asked to provide a reason why their characters would gather at Ravenwood, a small hold on the shores of the Baltic, near modern Rostock. The hall at Ravenwood is the fastness of Hygelac, who calls himself the Goth (purposefully anachronistic, and referring to the Germanic tribe rather than the modern emo-culture).

At the hall, a seeress, called the Angel of Death in the village, indicates that the group have a shared destiny, and marks each of them with a rune, granting each access to a “mythic power.” Most of the group picked their power from a list, though some accepted random assignments. We had two characters who already had limited access to magical powers.

As he had dreamed of Holm coming and taking his sword, Hygelac precipitated a battle, which drew in all the PCs due to their shared destiny.

And this is where I fell down as a GM. I’m familiar with the d20 system, but not totally with the True20 system. Toughness saves were new to me. Further, I hadn’t noted the Minions rules. Minions would have worked perfectly for what I had envisioned, but instead, the group struggled through a very difficult battle.

This led me to do two things. First, I reread the rules, and noted the Minions rules. Second, because I wanted every character to be somewhat useful in combat, I created “iconic weapons,” a weapon type that is tied to a character.

Each character would chose a specific type of weapon (longsword, scimitar, longbow, whatever) and when using that type of weapon would gain three benefits. 1) A +4 bonus that could be applied to attack or defence, based on the player’s decision at the outset of combat. 2) A +4 damage rating. 3) Can be used in ranged or melee without penalty.

The reason for 1) was to allow the character to excel beyond their mechanics in combat. Even a character built to be a scholar would have a fair chance in combat. Those who are built for combat are truly frightening.

The reason for 2) was that I wanted characters to choose weapons based on concept and style rather than mechanics. If you want to play a dagger-man, you can, and it can be as effective as a sword! True20’s more abstract combat system makes this workable even with two-weapon fighting, as it only adds a +2 to the damage.

The reason for 3) was simply based on the cinematic and action-adventure bent of the campaign. In many books and movies, characters are using bows like clubs and throwing swords as a last resort. This allowed for that level of cinematic action.

And all of the bonuses for the iconic weapon were based on a concept of cinematic action rather than realistic. The more abstract combat system of True20 helped this along tremendously. I also made a ruling that there was no need to track ammunition. I adapted the Savage Worlds system for Allies which gives a variety of categories to track ammunition usage rather than tracking each and every arrow. This means that we can go with the fiction of a 6 second combat round that includes multiple attacks or attempts, all defined by a single roll. I’ve discussed my thoughts on that elsewhere.

Defeating Hygelac and his warband, the spirit of the Angel of Death reveals the existence of the Bulgar Gold and divulges that Thorgil of Visiby in Gotland knows its secret. Off the PCs go to Visiby, only to learn that Thorgil was just murdered. At first, the PCs are suspects, but they are able to gain the trust of one of Thorgil’s friends, and through him, Thorgil’s wife.  Thorgil’s wife could not help them with information on the Bulgar Gold, but directed them to Thorgil’s sister in Balagard.

Through his mythic power of Object Reading, Nemit saw a vision of a red-haired man in a red cloak murder Thorgil with his own sword during a friendly conversation. The murderer was identified as Sven Helmcarver, a sea-king (leader of a large warband and fleet, but without any land) of some renown. Sven and his ship, the Wolf’s Breath, had set sail the morning before the group arrived–the morning after Thorgil’s death.

The group set off after Sven, believing he too sought Thorgil’s sister in Balagard.

All in all, I thought it went pretty well. I was wrong, though, as we lost one player. The player who ran Blatik did not feel the game was suitable for an inexperienced player. I asked, through email, for more information on what the problem might be. I wrote that if the player enjoyed the campaign, then we could fix whatever deficiencies he may have encountered. I never heard back, so I figure he either didn’t enjoy the company or the campaign.

Down to four players, which, for me, is the sweet spot. I would have liked to have heard more from Blatik’s player, and since a lot of the plot was altered to suit his character’s background, I was sorry to lose his character. In the end, though, the players that remained expressed enthusiasm for the campaign.

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Campaign Journal: The Meet

Before I went forward with the game, before I put more work than a basic outline and intro scenario, I wanted to meet the crew I had assembled. There was one reason and one reason only: I didn’t want to game with someone with whom I wouldn’t be willing to sit down at a coffee shop and chat. Call it elitist, but I don’t want a walking embodiment of all the negative gamer stereotypes in my game.

There was some discussion of possible meeting places. I found further proof, if I needed any, that some groups–especially at their inception, require someone to make the decisions. There were suggestions, but no real votes or support for any of these suggestions. As such, I chose a coffee shop that worked for me and set a time that worked for me.

One player dropped out day of–but it was work related. I can dig that. It doesn’t happen a lot to me these days, but I’ve been in that position. So, a meeting with four out of five players. I had had six, but the one player that I actually knew and a schedule conflict, so he’s out until possibly next year. We shall see.

Of the four in attendance, one had played before with the missing member. That was a bonus. The experience level was incredibly varied, from a few games to a decade plus. That’s cool. I actually dig that. That kind of disparity in experience can be brutal when delivering training or teaching, but in a game I think it adds some spice, different perspectives and hopefully different styles.

We did a meet and greet, and just talked gaming for awhile. Then I got down to business. There were a few things I wanted to do.

I wanted to give everyone a good sense of the game I wanted to run. In this case, it was set in 988 AD Scandinavia but in a world not necessarily our own. This is a place of myth and legend, where magic and monsters may exist. Also, the players were going to have control of the game in that it would be a pure sandbox. I would drop hooks and quests for them, but they could ignore those with impunity. Finally, the characters were going to be the heroes. No 10th level  bartenders. No 10th level city guards. They were going to start at 3rd level and that meant they were already exceptional.

I wanted to discuss house rules. I had a list of changes I wanted to make to the True20 rules. We discussed my reasoning. Some of the rules were adopted, some were shot down, and some were parked for later consideration.

Finally, I wanted to hear their character concepts and discuss them if possible. Only two people had concepts, and only one of them fleshed out to any degree. We did have a discussion on my philosophy toward building characters, that is begin with a concept, flesh out the concept, and we’ll build the mechanical part later.

In the end, I believe the meeting was successful. I believe I transmitted both my enthusiasm for the game and the concept for the campaign. The proof of this, though, will come when we next meet for a character building session and first few games.

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Campaign Journal: The Research

In the previous post, I described how I got the group together. But once that group is together, then what?

I gave lots of options as to what we could play. I was going away to Korea for a month, so I wanted to have an idea of what we would be playing before I left. Not only did I leave the system choice open (though I stated I hoped to play True20), I gave campaign ideas from high fantasy to dystopian SF, from Greek hoplites to space marines. The sheer number of options may have stifled some people–sometimes too much choice is a bad thing. A couple of people piped in mentioning sword & sorcery and Vikings.

So I suggested an S&S Vikings game, and no one disagreed, so that was to be our campaign.

The options I provided were all ones I had considered or on which I had done some preparation, so none of the choices would have been odious to me. Being a new group, none of whom knew each other, I think there may have been some hesitancy regarding choosing the kind of game. What I didn’t want to do was dictate a type of game and then lose players.  Perhaps I gave too many choices or perhaps the players just wanted to play something–anything. Whatever the case, before I left I had my campaign genre.

I had plenty of time to prepare while in Korea. We were visiting family rather than doing the tourist thing, and I had time during my daughter’s nap, when no one else was around, to read, speculate and make notes. I had a notebook specifically for the campaign with me. I also brought three books to use for reference and inspiration.

The point of having a notebook–to me–isn’t to take long notes or develop anything, it’s there to catch all your thoughts. I just scratched down anything I read that sparked my interest or gave me insight. There was no rhyme nor reason.

Now the notebook I had was divided into 4 sections. This is useful because now I use the first section to scribble anything that pops into my head. The second section is where I develop ideas. The third section is for developing NPCs. I don’t know what the fourth section will be for, though I’m sure I’ll find a use.

I would suggest at the research stage, you only worry about getting ideas, gathering background knowledge, and sketching out general concepts. If a particular scene comes fully formed into your head, absolutely write down something more substantial, but don’t worry about form. Get the idea down in a way that you can return to it and develop it.

As for the books, I took three because that’s what I had room for. I was travelling. If you are at home, you have access to many, many more. Since my return, I have fleshed out my knowledge with some other references I’ll refer to below.

A Brief History Of the Vikings: The Last Pagans or the First Modern Europeans? by Jonathan Clements was my main Viking reference. This gave me what I needed for the historical background of the Vikings and their culture. It is a very high level, global consideration of the Vikings and their history, focused clearly on the Viking Age, from around the 8th to the 11th century. It also gave a nice background on the Viking religion and superstitions.

I used the Last Apocalypse by James Reston as a general guide for the era leading up to the first millennium. I had read the book before, and I remembered enjoying it. The discussion of issues surrounding Scandinavia made much more sense after learning about the Vikings and their history.

I read the Long Ships (original title in Swedish was Röde Orm, or Red Orm, a reference to the main character) by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson for inspiration. I had developed a concept from reading Clement’s history, but the Long Ships gave me another, more practical and grounded quest–the search for the Bulgar Gold. Also, it gave me some concept of the actual environs of the eastern trade route with Constantinople, at least up to the cataracts.

All of these references gave me tidbits that I added to my background information notes, as well as plot ideas and character concepts. Further, they all provided names. This is something that I prize like gold. I like to have a list of names for men and women so that NPCs can all be named.

On my return, I was able to borrow a copy of Vikings, a recorded lecture series by Kenneth W. Harl.

This series of recordings was much more in depth than the Brief History, but it also ate up almost all my podcast listening time. To be honest, it was worth it. Dr. Harl is a good speaker, at least on CD, and I actually listened to the lectures in order once, then I listened again to the ones I thought of particular value. As a podcast listener in the first place, listening to a series of lectures wasn’t something out of the ordinary. For others, it might not go as well. Also, as I was usually on the bus or walking while I was listening, I couldn’t take notes as ideas hit me, so it was not ideal for me.

And I, of course, consulted Wikipedia often, especially to verify my notes from Dr. Harl’s Vikings once I returned the CDs. But Wikipedia was also useful to read about things like the Volsung Saga or Hrolfr Kraki, to get a kind of cultural grounding.

The 13th Warrior was also a huge influence on the game I had conceived and therefore a type of research. I loved the scene bringing the group together, which is why I poached it. I loved the fatalistic philosophy of the Vikings in that movie–no man escapes his destiny, you die when it’s your time no matter what, so why try to hide from death? I loved the specific roles for the characters. This was all a large reason for my choosing to pursue a Viking game.

With a solid idea of the background and historical context, a good grasp of the game I wanted to play, I began to compile my notes and actually got down to writing the introductory scene. I had already adopted the scene in which the 13 warriors are chosen in the movie the 13th Warrior as the method I would use to glue the group together. Their destinies would be tied, and to break faith would mean they would all die within the year. That gives a narrative impetus for the group to remain together, even if in the game there is character conflict.

But I didn’t go too far. Not until the first meeting.

But that’s another story.

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Spec Ops Burn

So, I’ve written up mini-settings for Burn Notice campaigns in both a fantasy and Victorian horror genres. Let’s look at the modern genre now. Granted, Burn Notice is a modern action-adventure, so rather than a spy character, let’s cook up a Burn Notice special ops military campaign.

For Spec Ops Burn, I’m going to have the characters all as part of one team. I envision them as an extraction team, similar to Drift in the Mundus Novit setting. They get sent into Albenistan to extract an intelligence asset from Khorforjan, only to receive a note at the front desk that they have been disavowed. The note indicates that the team is under suspicion of rogue actions, though no specifics are given. The note also indicates a restriction to Khorforjan and its environs. Should the team leave Khorforjan, they will be considered rogue and a wanted notice would be circulated to all nations. The team knows that they have made lots of enemies, and should their identities be compromised, they and their families would be in extreme danger. It is hoped that the GM would get player buy-in before attempting to restrict the characters in this fashion, as without buy-in the players are likely to concoct some elaborate plan to get out of Khorforjan–likely just because that’s where the GM wants them to stay.

The team gets co-opted into small jobs by the local private military contractors and then later through the local law enforcement. It will likely become known pretty quickly that there is a “rogue” unit in town, but that they are “white hats.” This could actually increase the team’s pull with the local authorities.

The jobs the team would encounter could be very similar to what is seen on the series. Khorforjan is not completely lawless, and there is an attempt to lead normal productive lives by most of the population. People are running businesses, taking the bus to work, trying to get by. But there is a strong lawless element in Khorforjan, that could become a kind of regular nemesis, requiring the characters to keep a low profile, and also providing easily identifiable bad guys.

One of the PMCs is a CIA plant, and through him the team should begin to learn that their burn was based on a mission they completed in Pakistan–very black book. Turns out, the guy who tasked them to the mission was actually off the reserve. He had gone rogue. Rather than admit to this, the agency for whom he worked implicated the team. At some point, that rogue agent must travel to Khorforjan for a drug deal. This gives the characters a chance to capture him and clear their names. He is, though, aware the team are present in the city, and will be taking exceptional precautions.

For the characters, I can see them as a more serious version of the A-Team. Michael is the leader and tactical planner. Fiona is the combat expert, possibly with stealth skills. Sam is the fixer, though I think his connections and the information fed to him should be narrative. More on that later. Sam can be combat-capable as well, but with lots of social skills and some stealth skills.  The last character, let’s call her Natasha, nick-named Nate, is the tech-head, with all sorts of engineering and technical skills, including break-and-enter skills.

I say that Sam’s connections should be narrative due to their importance to the plot. In the series, the information Sam gets is required to move the plot forward. If this is the same in the game, you do not want Sam to fail or the game is stalled. Therefore, I would give Sam information to move the plot forward when required, otherwise his contacts come up empty.

In order to build these characters in True20, I would use a modified version of the Occupation mechanics from Modern20. Michael would likely be a warrior with a Spy occupation. Fiona would be a warrior with a Special Operator occupation. Sam would be an expert with a Con Man occupation. Nate would be an expert with the Technician occupation.

This game would likely be relatively violent. Unlike the show, force and the regular use of firearms would likely be common. Whether it was done in an action cinema fashion or something grittier would really be up to the players.